This post contains spoilers through the pilot of House of Lies.

So, this show. As I wrote in my review of this show, I think it basically think this show has a “When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid” problem compounded by the fact that it doesn’t seem totally clear to the folks running it (though I will ask them later this week) what the strongest parts of House of Lies are. And so we have the gamut tonight of the awesomeness of the team’s evil pitch to MetroCapital, and the awfulness of That Scene in the restaurant.

The good stuff first. I think House of Lies will end up being a really fascinating test of how far our tolerance for anti-heroes can go. It’s one thing to get emotionally invested in Tony Soprano or Walter White, because even though their acts are heinous, there’s an almost-zero chance that we’ll ever come into contact with anyone like them. There is a vastly less-than-zero chance that we know people who have been deeply affected by the economic downturn. And depending on where you went to school, there’s also a chance that you know a whole bunch of management consultants. So are we willing to tolerate realistic awful acts in our entertainment? Will we be entertained by Marty and company, and do very little about their real-life counterparts? Will we turn away from both in disgust? Or will House of Lies drive more of us to the 99 percent movement? The MetroCapital stuff is so blunt, and so believable, and it’s a reminder to interrogate the motivations of corporate do-gooderism.

I also really like Marty’s home life. There’s something kind of powerful at a time when the networks can’t put out a show centered on a black family, and when we’re awash in ridiculous conversations about the pathology of black men, to see a program that takes for granted the idea that a white audience will tune in to watch a three-man black family do its thing. Glynn Turman can pretty much do no wrong, as far as I’m concerned, and I enjoy watching him go from Mayor Royce to a retired-therapist semi-hippie. And I think Donis Leonard Jr. is doing a nice job as Roscoe, a role that could be super-cliche but that feels human because of his relative blitheness. I also really appreciate the fact that the show is telling a story about a child that doesn’t have a parent be pure evil or saintly. Parents of gay or trans kids aren’t perfect. They make compromises. They make mistakes. Capturing that and encouraging people to keep working at it, rather than castigating themselves for or shutting down over making mistakes, is an important cultural message.
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I’ll be recapping House of Lies, but I also reviewed the show for The Atlantic. And if you’re considering whether or not to tune in to the Sunday premiere, this should convince you:

House of Lies is at its best when it focuses specifically on the grotesqueness and desperation of the one percent, a subject that management consulting is uniquely poised to explore. “These guys are just looking for a way to justify their bonuses,” one of Doug’s junior team members tells him as they walk through the airport on the way to their first assignment. “And why shouldn’t they?” Marty wants to know. “Because they robbed the American public of billions of dollars by selling them bad mortgages,” his coworker Jeannie (a charming but underused Kristen Bell) tells him. And true to form, Greg Norbert, an executive at fictional mortgage giant MetroCapital, complains that people are unjustly angry at the company for giving them what they wanted in a boom, suggesting that underwater homeowners “cowboy the fuck up.”…

After the assignment at MetroCapital, Greg Norbert appears again, this time to set into motion the season’s major plot arc: MetroCapital’s attempt to acquire the firm Marty and his team work for so the mortgage company can have in-house consultants rather than hiring outsiders. “After you left, we felt sad,” Greg tells Marty, who had hoped not to see Greg again after a sublimely awkward business dinner. “No, not really. But we had all this bailout money.” That last line sums up one of the most off-putting things about the economic crisis and recovery we’ve been living through since 2008: The people substantially responsible for our current peril ended up with a lot of money and remain unrepentant.

For those of you who were curious about how the show would handle Cheadle’s character’s gender-variant son, the answer is also very well, in a way that gets beyond the supportive-parent/unsupportive parent dichotomy to examine the actual hurts and compromises parents of gay and non-gender conforming parents make every day. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the show knows that these are the things it has going for it best. There’s a lot of semi-standard cable debauchery, something I’m getting increasingly sick of: risque sex talk is not inherently meaningful. And not all the clients are equally interesting or offer equal opportunity for commentary on the economy. But Cheadle is very good. Kristen Bell is very good. And I’m kind of glad to see management consulting go under the microscope.